The disposal of waste such as drilling waste (e.g., cuttings, muds, reservoir pit, fluids, etc.) from drilling various types of wells has become an increasingly difficult problem due to restrictions imposed by various governmental authorities and agencies, and the desire to minimize environmental damage. These problems are aggravated or at least amplified in certain wellbore drilling operations, particularly in offshore drilling operations, wherein the disposal of wastes normally requires transport of the waste to a suitable landfill or shore-based processing system or an offsite commercial nonhazardous oilfield waste facility. Disposal of nonhazardous oilfield waste (NOW) can be disposed of by the above methods.
Another method of disposing of drilling waste is to dispose of such waste down a wellbore of a non-productive reservoir of an exploratory well. Drilling operators, regulators and government authorities are trying to determine whether the above method can be applied to injecting productive pit solids contaminated with naturally-occurring radioactive material (NORM) either alone or in combination with NOW, into non-productive reservoirs.